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Free access to the English Short Title Catalogue

‘A matchless resource’, said Professor
David McKitterick of Cambridge University
about the new web-access English Short
Title Catalogue (ESTC). The catalogue lists
all books – some 500,000 – printed in the
British Isles, and in English anywhere in the
world, up to 1800. It also lists the locations
of known copies in 2,000 libraries, archives
and collections worldwide.

Neil Wilson and Moira Goff (above)
managed the complex task of mounting
the database on the Library’s website.
Moira says, ‘ESTC has been a costly
subscription service for two decades. Now
we’ve created a free web service, opening
up this “matchless resource” to researchers
and an increasingly wide public interest.‘